Why Victims of Hostage-Taking Need a Special Envoy Fit for Purpose
Last November, the UK Government committed to introducing a Special Envoy for Complex Consular Detentions, following calls from victims of State hostage-taking and their families, parliamentarians,and civil society, including from REDRESS.
The role is expected to deal with cases of British nationals taken hostage for diplomatic leverage and other complex cases of arbitrary detention. This is sorely needed given the alarming rise in State hostage-taking globally, and the fact that British nationals are among the most frequent targets of hostage-taking, and face some of the worst outcomes.
There are currently at least seven British nationals detained abroad whose cases the United Nations has confirmed to be arbitrary, and for whom it is assumed diplomatic intervention would be required to resolve. Yet British nationals are more likely than any other to die in captivity or endure detention that lasts over three years.
Currently, the UK Government lacks a clear strategy to deal with the arbitrary detention of its nationals. It is hoped that a Special Envoy will help to reverse this trend. However, if the role is not properly resourced or not does possess the necessary high level decision-making power to bring government departments together and negotiate with foreign States, it risks being merely a symbolic title, without bringing about real change.
Complex diplomatic challenge
It is almost inevitable that hostage and complex arbitrary detention cases require diplomatic intervention to bring British nationals home. In the case of State hostage-taking, the detaining State treats people as bargaining chips, creating a complex diplomatic challenge.
That is why it is so important that a Special Envoy has the necessary resources and decision-making authority to drive cross-government action, with dedicated funding, a direct reporting line to the Cabinet Office and a strong voice on the international stage. They must also be mandated to engage with families, listen to survivors, and ensure that the UK response is guided by international human rights standards.
Survivors of torture and complex arbitrary detention, such as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was imprisoned in Iran for six years, and Jagtar Singh Johal, arbitrarily detained for over seven years in India, show the human cost of the UK’s lack of strategy. Their families have been left with little trust in a government that still lacks the joined up thinking and focused action which could be provided by a properly resourced Special Envoy with a clear and robust mandate.
REDRESS recommends that the Special Envoy have the resources and power necessary to lead diplomatic responses, while treating families as trusted partners, keeping them informed and meaningfully involved in their loved ones’ cases, reducing the trauma they inevitably experience, at a time when they are at their most vulnerable.
Photo: British-Iranian hostages Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori arrived at the British military airbase at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 17 March 2022, after years of arbitrary detention by Iran (© UK Government, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).